GaN in Plastic Powers Pulses

A gallium-nitride (GaN) power module in surface-mount plastic housing has been developed for pulsed avionics and radar applications from 960 to 1215 MHz. Model MAMG-001214-090PSM is a two-stage GaN module capable of high peak pulse output-power levels in a compact 14 × 24 mm housing. Designed to boast advantages in size, weight, and power (SWaP) compared to ceramic-housed modules, this unit provides more than 90 W output power with 60% power-added efficiency (PAE) and 30-dB power gain (measured with 3-ms pulses at 10% duty cycle). It suffers second harmonics of -30 dBc and third harmonics of -40 dBc. The pulse module is designed for +50-VDC operation.